GALVESTON, Texas (AP) -- A young father was convicted Tuesday of
badly injuring his infant daughter by putting her in a microwave,
with jurors rejecting his claim that he was insane at the time.

Jurors deliberated about four hours before finding 20-year-old
Joshua Mauldin guilty of felony injury to a child.

After the verdict, jurors began hearing testimony in the
punishment phase of the trial. Mauldin faces anything from
probation to life in prison.

Mauldin pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying he was
having a psychotic episode when he put his then 2-month-old
daughter, Ana, in a hotel microwave for 10 to 20 seconds last May
while her mother and grandmother were away.

Prosecutors and Mauldin's defense attorney, Sam Cammack III, had
no immediate comment after the verdict.

Mauldin sat emotionless as his daughter's foster mother detailed
in penalty phase testimony how Ana's wounds still need to be
cleaned every day and how she screams during the painful
process.

The witness, Heather Croxton, said she hopes to adopt Ana, who
is now 1 year old. Another trial scheduled for next month will seek
to terminate the parental rights of Joshua and Eva Mauldin, who
lives in Arkansas. Croxton's husband is a step-cousin of Eva
Mauldin.

Croxton said Ana will need more operations to remove scar tissue
and reconstruct her left ear, but she said she is more worried
about the day Ana finds out what happened to her.

"I can only imagine how (she) would feel, knowing that the man
that was supposed to take care of her did this to her," Croxton
said as she cried. "As far as telling her the truth … I don't see
how we cannot tell her. She's going to want to know how she got
those scars."

Cammack told jurors during closing arguments Monday that mental
illness was probably the only explanation for his client's
actions.

"Joshua Mauldin has been somebody with mental illness from the
time he was 10 years old until the time this offense was
committed," he said.

But prosecutors countered that Mauldin was driven by anger that
he was in a loveless marriage and was stuck in a new town with a
baby he didn't want to care for.

"All (Mauldin) has done is try to wrap himself in some
psychiatric flag and say, 'I did it and I was crazy,"' Galveston
County prosecutor Xochitl Vandiver told jurors. "That's what he's
trying to pull on you all. Don't fall for it, because it is a
lie."

Officials say Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her
left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and needed skin grafts. Before
putting her in the microwave, Mauldin had punched the baby and put
her in the hotel room safe and refrigerator.

At the time, Mauldin had just moved to Galveston, about 50 miles
southeast of Houston, from Warren, Ark., to become a preacher.

"He knowingly hurt that baby because he was angry with her,"
Vandiver said.

Cammack said Mauldin was a loving father who tried to run into
traffic and kill himself after realizing what had happened.

But Vandiver said that Mauldin has a history of lying, including
about being mentally ill, to get out of trouble. He initially
claimed his daughter was severely sunburned.

The state defines not guilty by reason of insanity as having a
severe mental illness that prevents someone who is committing a
crime from knowing that it is wrong.